So, Dubois is full-time IBF champion now?

Though it's unlikely, I'd like to see Dubios KO AJ and the subsequent meltdown that will cause.

 

Not that unlikely. There were rumors that Dubois sparked AJ in sparring that were later confirmed by Dubois. It's just sparring sure, but it should give him a mental edge.

 

Dubois with his dad in the corner appears to be a different beast. Crazy really.

 

Doesn't matter. The real champion is Usyk, no matter who holds the IBF belt. A fact even more driven home by that it's contested by two guys he has beaten.

AJ-Dubois is a really good fight, though. Looks very likely to be decided by KO.

 

This. Both guys got spanked by Usyk so the 'champion' here will be entirely theoretical. FWIW I think AJ is a better boxer than Dubois and I think Dubois' chin may have some cracks in it so I'll tip Joshua for the win.

 

This is an easy way for AJ to win a trinket belt. AJ is a bad matchup for Dubois.

 

Plastic belts plastic champions

Can already see AJ runming around claiming he's a 3x champion like Ali. Yet he's never beat a reigning legit champion for a belt...

Wladimir, Fury and Usyk are the legit champions with lineage. AJ and Wilder nearly created their own reigns to be legit but both flopped hard. Should have fought each other whilst Fury was on a bender and Usyk was still a small child.

I hope Dubious wins but I rate AJ's slightly crisper offense to overcome dubious.

 

I think Dubois knows he can't go balls to the walls as he did against Hrgovic and take as many punches, so it will be interesting to see what approach he chooses.

 

I am glad that Dubois is the IBF champion when my compatriot is not, I also hope that Dubois will knock out Joshua.

 

If Dubois better than Hrgovic, it's a good win under AJ's belt.

 

So the IBF have decided to take the belt away from the real champion, and give it to a guy he beat last year.

The new “champion” will defend against a guy that the real champion beat twice in recent years.

What a load of rubbish. Devalues the IBF belt, and devalues the concept of the world champion.

If the IBF cares about its rules so much it should have refused to sanction the Fury fight on account of the rematch clause. That is what it’s rules say it should have done, but for some unknown reason which I’m sure has nothing to do with money they sanctioned it knowing they would then strip the winner.

All sanctioning bodies should have the following rules:

1) If a fighter has lost to the champion in the last 2 years they cannot be a mandatory contender.

2) If they sanction a title fight with a rematch clause, the new champion must be allowed to fight the rematch without being stripped of the belt.

3) Unification fights should count as a mandatory defence.

 

And that's why we have a concept of the real (lineal or traditional) champion of the world.

 

One of boxings peculiarities. This is what happens when **** houses hold up negotiations and then enact **** rematch clauses

 

AJ was close to gaining the universal recognition as the champ when Fury was out doing coke. He unified 3 alphabet titles and as the number 1 HW in the world beat number 3, which was sometimes enough to be crowned the new champ (Wlad for example). But his claim was weak and then Fury came back.

Wilder was a definiton of a paper champion, winning the belt off of another paper champion and defending it only once against a Top 10 opposition before Fury came back.